Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk visited the White House for the first time during President Joe Biden’s term in September, a contrast to his multiple trips under the previous two administrations.
Musk was in the West Wing on Sept. 13, according to White House visitor logs released in late December. The billionaire didn’t meet with Biden, which whom he has had a tense relationship, but instead sat down with senior administration aides working on technology policy to discuss artificial intelligence, according to a White House official.
Musk was in Washington to attend an AI summit with lawmakers and executives at the US Capitol.
The White House meeting with Musk, reported earlier Wednesday by NBC News, is one of many Biden’s staff have held with stakeholders as he “developed the most significant action any government in the world has taken on AI safety, security and trust,” White House spokeswoman Robyn Patterson said in a statement.
“The Biden-Harris administration has been clear with tech leaders about the need for companies to ensure their products are safe before they’re released to the public,” she added.
Musk, who also runs Space Exploration Technologies Corp. And owns X, formerly Twitter, has an AI startup called xAI. His representatives did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Wednesday night.
The visit was Musk’s only trip to the White House during Biden’s presidency, the White House official said. In contrast, he visited the executive mansion on multiple occasions during the Obama and Trump administrations.
The difference is an indication of the chilly relationship between Biden and Musk.
Musk — the world’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — has bristled at the president’s electric vehicle policy, which he said has snubbed Tesla in favor of companies like General Motors Co. That have unionized workforces.
He has accused Biden and his administration of being “biased” against his company, citing a 2021 EV event at the White House that excluded Tesla.
Musk said in November — more than two months after his White House visit — that he voted for Biden in 2020 but couldn’t see himself doing so again in 2024.
Biden administration officials have met with Musk previously, but not at the White House. Senior climate adviser John Podesta and infrastructure adviser Mitch Landrieu sat down with Musk last January to discuss ways to advance EV production.
Biden for long stretches of his presidency refused to mention Tesla while touting his EV policy, though he offered rare praise for the company last year for opening part of its charging network to other EVs. Still, Biden has voiced support for the United Auto Workers union’s effort to organize Tesla, something Musk has strongly resisted.
The White House also condemned an antisemitic post Musk made on X as “abhorrent” and “unacceptable.”
The president and Musk have at times traded juvenile insults.
Musk in 2022 called Biden “a damp sock puppet in human form” after he was not invited to attend a meeting of business leaders at the White House.
Later that year, Biden responded to Musk’s gloomy predictions about the US economy by saying “lots of luck on his trip to the moon.”